Day 2 DC 4/17/18

We had breakfast in the condo this morning and took our time getting out the door as most of the museums don't open until 10.  We opted to stay inside as much as possible today as it was 45 and very windy - way too cold to walk up to the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.  We took the Metro down to the Mall area and walked over to the Air and Space Museum.  We were the first in line and only had to wait 15 minutes until the doors opened.  We wandered around a bit - checking out the Discovery Room until it was time to go to the IMAX 3-D theater to see "Journey into Space".  It was very good.  We then went up to the second floor and spent a lot of time in the Wilbur and Orville Wright exhibit.  The kids were fascinated with the early attempts at flight.  I took their picture sitting on the steps of the Wright family home with Wilbur and Orville in the back.  We saw a moon rock and checked out a mock up of SkyLab.  We went down to the first floor and they each chose a ride to go on.  Zoe picked the Flight Simulator and the shot of her is trying out the levers before she gets on the ride.  Nathaniel chose to go on the Virtual Reality Transporter.  They both said they enjoyed the experience.  We then walked to the cafeteria for lunch only to find out that it was closed for maintenance.  We walked across the Mall and went to a small cafe in the Museum of Natural History (their larger cafeteria was being renovated).  We then explored the museum Nathaniel liked Insect World the best and even got to hold a Madagascar Giant Hissing Cockroach (Yikes!) and Zoe liked the Hope Diamond (she didn't get to hold that!).  We came back to the condo and are resting our smoking feet and journaling until it is time for dinner.  It is still very cold and windy outside so we may take a cab to dinner. 

Washington DC Day 1 4/16/18

We woke Nathaniel and Zoe at 6:15 this morning so they could dress, eat breakfast and brush teeth before we drove to New London to catch the 7:40 train.  Unfortunately, it was raining this morning, but not pouring, so we got a bit damp going from the parking garage to the station, but no one was soaked.  We had to walk through three cars before we found 4 seats together, but we settled in and got comfortable for the ride.  We looked for Jimmy and Jeanne's house, but didn't see it - we did wave and say "Hi" at the point where we thought their house was.  We also said "Hi" to Zoe's Yaya as we went through Stamford.  We got to New York in about two hours.  The kids played games on their machines, did some puzzles and coloring pages about DC that I had packed and watched Yukon Gold on Nathaniel's machine.  We had lunch on the train - not a lot of choices: sandwiches, burgers and dogs, but they kids go to choose. 

We got to DC at 2 and wouldn't you know, it was raining again.  We hopped in a taxi and got to our home-away-from-home in Logan Circle.  By the time we got settled, the rain had stopped and we went across the street to Whole Foods to get some breakfast items.  We then walked to the Dupont Circle metro station and went down to the mall.  We got off at the wrong station for the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial so we changed plans and visited the outdoor sculpture garden where the kids had their photos taken in front of their favorite sculptures and had a ride on the mall carousel.  The carousel was moved here from Baltimore in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King.  On the same day that he gave his dream speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a young black girl and her father were the first people of color to ride the Baltimore carousel.  The kids enjoyed the ride and we got back on the metro and headed to Chinatown to have dinner.  We chose to eat at the Corner Bakery Cafe.  Zoe had a breakfast sandwich and Nathaniel had pasta and meatball (singular and it was the largest one I have ever seen!).  They each had a bowl of fruit with their dinner.  We "metroed" back to Dupont Circle and walked back to the condo.  We were all happy to shed our shoes and the kids are writing their journal page.  Tomorrow we will start with the Air and Space Museum and then go from there.  BTW, the cherry blossoms are out, but they are a little past peak.

2/23/18 Last day at HabiStore

We had the early shift today so got on the road about 8:00.  For the 4th day in a row, it was colder in the morning here than in Mystic.  The difference is that when we came out of work at 1:30, it was 65 degrees and sunny.  Today was quite slow, but we did sell to almost everyone who came in so that was a successful day.  Everyone said they were sad to see us go, but we are ready to come home.  Alastair was delighted with the brownies, but sad that he wouldn't get any more.  They must have been popular because I took a break at 10 and they were all gone (24 count)!  I forgot to tell you about a weird incident that happened on the way to work yesterday.  There was a car carrier ahead of us as we turned onto Grant Street.  It went under the I-10 overpasses just fine, but when it went under the railroad overpass, the car on top had pieces flying off of it - the carrier with its load was taller than the overpass!  Fortunately, none of the pieces hit our car as I don't usually follow too closely.  The driver pulled into the back parking lot of Sonic, which is next door to the HabiStore, and Dave saw him take the car down to inspect it, leave it parked in the lot and then come back later with a different carrier to cart it away.  I hope there was insurance on the car as it was brand new.  If no insurance, the driver probably lost his job.  We get done with our shift at 1, but stayed a bit longer so Luis could print out our boarding passes for tomorrow.  We came home, had lunch, and packed our suitcases.  Tomorrow we will vacuum, change the bed, and throw a load of sheets and towels in the washing machine.  We will go out to dinner tonight so there won't be any dishes to deal with.  No pics today and this will be our last blog so hope to talk to everyone when we get home.

2/22/18 House Dedication

Glorious sunset last night!  We got up early so we could drive south of the city to attend Arlene's house dedication.  It is a lovely 3 bedroom, 2 bath house.  She, her son and her daughter were very excited.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the banana bread, but there were lots of other items on the food table: quiche, soft tacos with pork, some type of pastry that looks like a filled tart, donuts, coffee cake, etc.  There was a standing room only crowd in the living room and Arlene was very happy as she received her keys to the front door.  It was nice that management delayed the opening of the store until 10 so all the workers could attend the dedication.  We came back to the house to do a few things as we weren't scheduled until 12:30.  When we got to the store, we noticed that they were having a 10% off sale on everything in honor of Arlene's new house - very sweet.  We gave the horseshoe to Matt, saying that we couldn't afford what he wanted (a horse), but we gave him a start.  He laughed himself silly!  It was not super busy today, but everyone who came in bought something so that kept us on our toes all afternoon.  I did find out that we made $15,875 last Saturday - not as much as last year, but certainly a good number for sales in one day.  I just made a pan of brownies to bring in tomorrow - Alastair said he would skip breakfast so he could indulge in brownies.  Tomorrow we will work in the morning and then pack up in the afternoon.

2/21/18 Our favorite park again

We woke up this morning and checked the weather on the computer.  Another strange day!  Mystic woke up to 50 and fog with a high predicted of 55, while here in Tucson, we woke up to a very chilly 36, but clear skies and sunshine and we got up to 61.  We intended to visit a new park today that I spotted on our way back from yesterday's jaunt, however, when we got there, there was a $10 admission fee.  I didn't think we would be there long enough to walk off $20 so we returned to our favorite park.  We took pics of saguaro - one of which has arms akimbo and reminds me of Gumby and a baby one that I had Dave stand next to for scale.  I also wanted you to know that there are two types of barrel cacti - a straight needled one and a fish hook one.  The picture of the sand on the path is trying to show the javelina tracks we spotted.  As we got to the parking lot, we noticed the purple prickly pear cactus (something in the soil perhaps?) and a van that parked near to us - I hope you can read the signs and the license plate.  We came home and I baked two loaves of banana bread as we are attending the dedication of the new Habitat home for our cashier, Arlene.  I have been looking around the house for a ribbon for wrapping around the bag we put the horseshoe we bought for one of the workers whose birthday is today (but we won't see him until tomorrow at work).  I haven't found one yet, but I'll come up with something.  We are starting to gather some of the things we have spread around since we have been here.  I figure we will pack up Friday afternoon after our last day at work. We are ready to go home and hope that the milder weather stays when we get there.

2/20/18 Sabino Canyon

We had bit of rain last night and woke up to gray skies with a bit of sun poking through every now and then.  We checked the temperature this morning and at that time it was cooler here than at home! It has been windy most of the day, but the temperature did get up to 56.  We drove about a half hour south and visited Sabino Canyon located in the Coronado National Forest. Here they pronounce it Sa-bean-o rather than the way we pronounce the ship at the seaport.  We bought a ticket to the shuttle and had a lovely 4 mile ride up the canyon.  There are nine stops and you can hop-on/hop-off at any stop.  It runs every 30 minutes.  We elected to go to the last stop and then did a bit of walking here and there.  We didn't walk the whole way down as in some places water was running over the bridges.  Yes, I said water!  Since we have had rain, the creeks and brooks have filled and there is actually water running.  We chatted with a few people on our way down, but the most memorable was an 85 year old man who was walking up the canyon.  He was from Indiana, but lived in Tucson for 10 years and was associated with the U of A softball team.  He was very bright and spry for his age and said he comes back every year for a few weeks to get warm, visit old friends, and hike.  The sides of the canyon were quite steep in places - about the height of a 40-story building.  We saw plenty of cacti - some even on the steep hillsides, holding on precariously, but also enjoyed the geology.  The gray and white rock visible in at least one of the photos is Catalina Gneiss, a metamorphic rock.  There were several caves up on the rocky sides - makes you wonder if the Native Americans used them for shelter.  I don't know if it will show up, but the rocks at the top of the canyon at one point look like Snoopy lying on his back.  We saw several sycamore trees and some of plants and cacti were even showing some new green growth due to the recent rain.  We had another wonderful day here in Tucson.

2/19/18 Desert Park

So we had an easy day today.  We did some laundry and some cleaning up around the house.  The day was partly sunny and partly cloudy, but cool and very windy.  At one point we went out on the patio so Dave could work on a spoon he is carving for Charity and I took some sand paper to the horseshoe we bough yesterday to clean it up a bit.  When the laundry was done, we went for a lovely walk at the nearby park.  Dave was able to sand the handle of the spoon while we walked and I took a few pics of cacti and the mountains.  The park has three mountain ranges in sight.  We saw no birds or animals today, but the walk was grand.  We came home and had a late lunch and then just relaxed for a bit.  Not too much excitement today, but a thoroughly nice one none the less.